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I have to say I am very impressed with Ubuntu Netbook Remix running on my Asus 1005PE netbook. It is snappy, much better than Windows 7 on my DER Lenovo netbook and so far OpenOffice 3.2 has had no problem with most of the Word documents I need to edit for work.

The interface works really well on the netbook and I would not hurry to the standard Ubuntu layout. The way the launcher setup is there in lieu of the standard desktop works really well. That said with all my mapped drives as bookmarks I can no longer see my volumes on the Files and Folders page, but I can’t seem to work out how to get the icons smaller yet.

Out of the box all worked except for the wireless. So I headed over to a tutorial on James Little’s blog and all worked a treat. Thanks again James for sharing this. Sure you have to use a terminal but that is fine and it all works after that, just don’t install linux-backports package as other sites suggest. It doesn’t work and can cause issues with James’ tutorial.

Battery life seems to be around 8 hours which is not as good as the 14 hrs claimed by Asus under their modified Win 7 but it is comfortably enough for my work day.

All in all I have no hesitation in recommending Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Remix. All but the wireless works for me and best of all when on the data projector my students see something other than Windows as an OS.

The biggest disappointment is the 1005PE does not have N wireless. It might in other markets but may machine is only 802.11 b/g. Frustrating as most classrooms have N wireless in them now. Thanks Asus, why is the Australian model not sold with N? And many reviewers say it has N but double checking the Asus website says the Aus models are only b/g.